Music by John Stafford Smith
Lyrics by Francis Scott Key
Origin : https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/000/046
Comment
PGW states several times that American citizens do not know the words after the first sentence of the anthem "Oh, say! can you see by the dawn's early light".
Twice he quotes the song "The Argentines, The Portuguese and the Greeks" 🎹 to support this statement. But what the song "The Argentines, ..." really affirms is that none of Americans know the words after "My Country 'tis of thee" 🎹 (but the Argentines and the Portuguese and the Greeks).
'I am American, and don't let anyone tell you different.'
[...]
Sam nodded.
'"Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light?"' he said reverently.
'"What so proudly" – I never can remember any more.'
Sam the Sudden. 15 Visitors at Mon Repos
'[...] Au revoir, then, Phipps. At the Renfrew as the clocks are striking eight,' said Mervyn Potter. 'Give three quick rings and whistle the first few bars of "The Star-Spangled Banner".'
Barmy in Wonderland. Chapter 4
'Then I'm glad I'm American.'
'Me, too. Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light what–'
'What?'
'That's what I'm saying ... what? What comes after that?'
'I couldn't tell you. I generally hum from there on.'
French Leave. Chapter 7.IV
Presently it abandoned the search and trotted off with a muffled oath, and some little time after that Augustus, peering down from his eyrie, saw Oswald Stoker returning, accompanied by a very stout man holding a bottle of champagne by the neck and singing the Star–Spangled Banner.
A Few Quick Ones. 3 The Right Approach
[...] he has a singing dog on the premises. [...]
Buster, for such is is name, presumably confines himself to rendering the music of these items, omitting the words like a citizen joining in 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and possibly sings only in his bath, but even so the whole thing strikes me as fairly sinister.
Plum Pie. Our Man in America 8th
'So now I'll have to go back to America.'
'Well, what's wrong with America? Land of the free and home of the brave.'
Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin. Chapter 12.I